I am not strong on perfection What is your greatest extravagance?
a frugality that seems to confuse people who work with me What is your current state of mind?
something like very slow panic What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
desire for approval What is the trait you most deplore in others?
the tendency toward self-description What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
virtue itself What is your favorite occupation?
painting What is your most marked characteristic?
never knowing whether to expand or contract What do you most value in your friends?
tolerance, I suppose When and where were you happiest?
Pearl Street in 1950s NYC, but memory distorts What do you dislike most about your appearance?
what I imagine to be the general effect Which living person do you most despise?
there is none On what occasion do you lie?
when I think it is useful What or who is the greatest love of your life?
no one, no thing Which talent would you most like to have?
the ability to remember or forget at will If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
my inability to sing or dance If you could change one thing about your family,what would it be?
no one thing would do the trick What is your most treasured possession?
my refrigerator What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
intolerable pain of any sort Who are your favorite writers?
among them, Freud, Helen Keller, Edwin Arlington Robinson Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Jack (be nimble) Who are your heroes in real life?
dead artists and, a few, alive What are your favorite names?
William, Mary, Augusta What is it that you most dislike?
seeing fish with silver skin marinating in cream What do you consider your greatest achievement?
only my work suggests, perhaps wrongly, an effort in that direction If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
unlikely If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
must I decide before I die Where would you like to live?
not in the past How would you like to die?
effortlessly What is your greatest regret?
an absence of clarity What is your motto?
I have none
